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I first came across Draft House Sunday Sessions on Matt
Curtis’ excellent
Total Ales blog earlier in the year, and immediately resolved to go. Fast forward to May and
my girlfriend gave me an IOU for a ticket to one of the events...fast forward a
bit more to last Sunday and we finally made it.
For the uninitiated Draft House is a mini chain of pubs that
serve excellent beer to London punters. Sunday Sessions are held at their
smallest pub on Charlotte Street; a better venue for a quiet(ish) Sunday
afternoon of boozing is hard to imagine. The sessions are essentially ‘meet the
brewer’ type events with a bit of a twist, as beers are paired with small
plates of food. It’s also incredibly
good value at £25 a head which gets you six thirds of, beer and six small
plates of deliciousness to match.
Last week the pub hosted
Lervig Aktiebryggeri, a brewery
based in Stavanger in southern Norway. The
brewery was set up in 2003 in the former premises of Tou Brewery which had been
bought out by Carlsberg. It’s therefore a bit different from your average ‘craft’
brewery in that its home is a huge brewery designed for the mass-production of pilsner.
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The beers were absolutely superb from start to finish. The
afternoon got underway with Lervig and Magic Rock’s collaboration Farmhouse IPA,
a wonderful bitter, hoppy IPA with a hint of wheat, paired with an oyster
served with a strawberry dressing. Next up came a Rye IPA, part of Lervig’s ‘Brewers
Reserve’ series that was served alongside sous-vide salmon with horseradish and
watercress. The third course was another collaboration, this time with All In
Brewing; am imperial porter with wonderful roasted flavours and a beautiful steak
tartare served on a rye bread crisp.
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The staff at the Draft House were doing a superb job of
engaging people in conversation, as were the David and James from Lervig and as we
tucked into our beers the volume in the room increased noticeably. A Sorachi Ace
lager offered a bit of a breather after the hefty porter and was easily one of
the best lagers I’ve ever had. This was closely followed by a double IPA which
went down almost as easily despite its 10% ABV, a real testament to the skill
of the brewers. The DIPA was paired with what was probably my favourite course,
a deep-fried croquette of elk and buttermilk which provided some much needed
grease and salt.
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The drinking and eating concluded with a single hop Galaxy
IPA that came with some wonderful orange ice cream, a shard of crispy parma ham
and a honey gel (jelly?) that was so good it almost defies description. The
conversation between staff, brewers and punters alike continued before we went
on our merry way, not before I grabbed a couple more cans of some Lervig beers
that hadn’t featured on the menu.
I really couldn’t think of anything about Sunday Sessions that could be done any better; the staff are friendly and attentive and bring you delicious booze and food of a quality that is second to none, all at a bargain price in a fantastic environment. Sunday Sessions seem to be scheduled sporadically so it’s best to keep an eye on the Draft House website, I’ll probably see you there.
Rule of Thirds IPA is a collaboration between three of the top craft beer breweries in the UK; Siren, Beavertown and Magic Rock, that combines the flagship IPAs of each into one beer. Its an interesting concept and a beer that I couldn't really not try. The aroma of this beer is absolutely wonderful, big fruity hoppy notes on the nose as you'd expect, lovely. Flavour-wise its more of the same but with a dominating grapefruit bitterness, its really quite aggressively bitter and is a bit too much for me. Its well worth trying, especially for those that love their hops, but its entirely possible that its no greater than the sum of its parts. I'd much sooner tuck into a Gamma Ray than another of these.
